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Obama and Romney Agree: Romney Is a Conservative!

The latest ad from the Obama campaign is a Web video, so it won’t receive much traction among the population at large, but it does provide an interesting glimpse into how the campaign will attack Mitt Romney:

Rather than define Romney as a “flip-flopper,” they’ve opted to take him at his word and present him as a “severely conservative” nominee for the Republican Party. This, to me, is the right direction for the campaign. Romney’s strength is that he makes a great first impression—he seems reasonable, confident, and competent. Attacking him as a “flip-flopper” only reinforces that view and makes him seem less threatening to voters who aren’t sure that they want to support a Republican.

Alternatively, by attacking him as too conservative, Democrats remind the public of its dislike for the GOP and tie Romney to the most unpopular elements of the conservative agenda. It helps, too, that the former Massachusetts governor is also working to define himself as a conservative, in order to secure support from the Republican base. If the Obama campaign continues on this path—and Romney on his—there’s a good chance that he will be defined as the conservative choice in this election. How this plays out in the fall, is of course, up in the air.

Comments

Jamelle, re flip-flopping, I still think it's "both-and" -- as in, Mitt, you're flip-flopping *off* your conservative agenda. Scylla or Charybdis: stay right and get tagged as extremist, or move center and get tagged as flip-flopper.

A troubling memory is triggered, though: Carter's strategy was to paint Reagan as extremist.